Study: Media Coverage Has Favored Obama

A story from the Center for Media and Public Affairs concludes that comments made in television media coverage on the broadcast networks reflected more positively on Barack Obama than John McCain, reports AP media writer David Bauder. The study, which omitted talk about the horserace aspect of the campaign showed that the broadcast evening news programs reflected positively on Obama 65 percent of the time compared to just 31 percent of the time for McCain.

"For whatever reason, the media are portraying Barack Obama as a better choice for president than John McCain,'' said Robert Lichter, a George Mason University professor and head of the center. ``If you watch the evening news, you'd think you should vote for Obama.'' The study analyzed 979 separate news stories shown between Aug. 23 and Oct. 24. Bauder notes this is the second study in two weeks that demonstrates negative coverage for McCain. A Project for Excellence in Journalism examination of media coverage last week concluded that the McCain coverage has been "overwhelmingly negative" since the conventions.